While voters in most ridings cast ballots in favour of staying in Canada in Monday’s referendum, a majority in two rural ridings said they wanted Alberta to hold another vote on whether the province should leave Canada and become independent. In Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, an expansive central Alberta riding less than an hour from both Edmonton and Calgary, 51.1 per cent of voters supported holding a second, binding referendum to decide the province’s future in Confederation. The result was much the same in Central Peace-Notley in northwestern Alberta, where 50.7 per cent voted in favour. To the man who has long led the local government surrounding the Town of Rimbey, the results on separation came as little surprise. “They feel like they’re not being represented, and that’s what the attitude in this whole region is, is that they don’t feel that they have a voice in Edmonton, a voice in Ottawa,” Paul McLauchlin, the reeve of Ponoka County, told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday. Early results showed more than 76 per cent of voters overall chose to remain in Canada rather than vote on Alberta separating from Canada. Support for another referendum was higher in rural areas than in urban centres. Edmonton had the highest percentage of voters opposed to the idea. “There’s a bunch of folks who are disenfranchised right now,” said McLauchlin, who has been reeve for six terms and recently served as president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta. “They don’t believe they have a voice. They believe that they’re being lost in this new economy. They’re being left behind. Their way of life is being attacked, and so you got to pay attention to that. That’s what this is from.” Rimbey Mayor Rick Pankiw told CTV News Edmonton he had no comment on the result of the separation question, saying he prefers to focus on local concerns such as infrastructure rather than provincial issues. On the streets of Rimbey, residents on both sides of the debate shared their thoughts and concerns. Larke Newell says economic and quality-of-life concerns are stoking separatist sentiment in his part of the province. “Our housing, our health care, every facet is lower than it’s ever been,” Newell said, charging Prime Minister Mark Carney with continually “sending money to other countries instead of helping us.” “So Albertans are thinking, ‘Maybe it’s time to go our own way.’ Everybody talks about the equalization payments. That’s a real thing, and we’re paying out billions of dollars and getting nothing in return. Our oil is being shut down, our pipelines. We’re just a money machine for them.” Lotus Cottell sees it differently, calling the referendum “disgustingly unconstitutional and ignorant.” “The questions made me feel ashamed to live here,” Cottell said. “I think that we need to be more educated and smart because the separatists were not thinking whatsoever about the well-being of us as a province, or just the people that live here. I think it was just a disgusting ploy to gain more power for the Conservatives.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg
